I’m going to kill Doug. I’m going to kill him in his sleep.
“Doug’s a great guy, Daisy.” Leo smiled easily. “We really hit it off.”
“I’m sure you did,” Daisy said through gritted teeth. She and Doug had worked together the longest. He was her mentor, but he lacked the leadership skills, nor did he want to run W.A.N.T., but he absolutely loved to stick his nose into Daisy’s personal life. Not that she ever had one. That had never stopped Doug from trying to get her one. Now Leo showed up, and Doug looked as happy as a pig in mud.
“Daisy, I’ve got a few ideas about the project I want to run past you.” Effie Long said as she handed her a list. “I’ve highlighted the most important points in pink. As the developmental director, I have to tell you, I don’t think your vision is doable, but there are parts of it we could accomplish.”
Doug and Annie laughed. Effie always had concerns about everything. That was her position, and she played it well.
“Okay, we’ll go to the aid center and get you settled. Like usual, you’ll have cots and on every fourth day you get to have a camp bath.”
“Sounds about right,” Effie sighed. “Okay, I have a set of notes for you to review. I didn’t think we needed the reporter or the security analyst, but I bowed to Annie and Doug.”
“I agree with Annie. Rayi will be a great addition to the team. But you might be right about Leo. We’ll see if he really brings anything useful to the party.” Daisy gave Leo a laser-like glare. He gave her a heated smile in return. Once again she could hear Doug and Annie laughing.
Great. Just great.
She looked pissed. Exhausted, but pissed. It was pretty damned funny. Leo worked hard to keep a straight face. He’d lucked out getting on the same bus as Daisy’s executives to take to the internally displaced person camp here in Aden from the airport. After watching the interaction between Daisy and her personnel he could see that his take on the players had been pretty spot on. Effie, Doug, and Annie were all true believers in the cause. Annie and Doug would both take bullets for Daisy, but it was Doug who would kill Leo if he made one wrong move. On the bright side, he thought Daisy needed a personal life, and he didn’t believe for an instant that Leo was here to provide security. He had totally caught on that Leo’s reason for being here was personal, and he was happy about it.
“Leo, what a surprise to see you. I’m sorry if you didn’t catch on to the message I was giving you.”
“Daisy, I didn’t get any message from you, so there was nothing to catch on to. Now that we're here together, hopefully, we can rectify that.”
Dough laughed.
Effie looked confused.
Daisy glared at him. She was not happy. Good, serves her right.
“How do you two know each other?” Annie asked.
“We met in Afghanistan,” Leo answered.
“I wondered,” the reporter said. “I would like to ask you some questions.”
Leo turned on him. “I have some questions of my own. Perhaps we can spend a little time alone later today,” Leo all but growled. He was still pissed to find out that the reporter who had shown the video to Daisy was here in Yemen with her. He was not convinced this guy was on the side of the angels.
“Maybe you two can talk now,” Daisy said sweetly. “I need to speak to my directors before we take a tour of the camp.”
“After our talk, I think it is important that Leo be included on the tour,” Doug piped up.
“Fine,” was all Daisy said.
Leo smothered his grin.
“Where shall we meet you?”
“I’ll show you where the aid station is. There is a small spot where you can onload your belongings. If you stay close, then we can find you. I could call you if you had a satellite phone.”
“I do,” Rayi said.
“Same,” Leo agreed.
“Okay, then you can go further. But if you go too far, then we’ll leave without you for the tour.”
Again, he had to smother a grin. There was no give in the woman at the moment. Leo would have thought she was really pissed at him, but he knew better. She would have said unequivocally that he couldn’t be part of the team, no matter what Doug said. She hadn’t done that. So, she wasn’t that mad at him. Score one for Team Perez. Still didn’t explain why she’d ghosted him on all his texts and phone calls. Had she really believed he wouldn’t contact her in the States? Why was she pushing him away after he’d kept his promise? But he’d wait to find out. It was good enough just being here and getting some face-time with the woman.
He watched as the four people walked away, then he turned to Rayi, who immediately started speaking to Leo in English.
“So you were on the rescue mission for Dr. Squires?” the reporter asked.
“No comment.”
“But you’re American special forces, right?”
“No comment.”
“You and your Navy SEAL team were flown into Bagram Air Station five days before the rescue, then you were flown out ten hours after Dr. Squires was checked into the hospital at Bagram Air Base. I would say that you were part of the rescue. What do you have to say to
